Girdle type garments

ABSTRACT

Front, rear and side garment sections are stitched together in body encircling relationship and one of the sections, such as the front section or one of the side sections, is openable. The openable section includes a non-elastic outer panel having a vertical slit with a slide fastener at edges of the slit, and a pair of mutually crossed elastic inner panels which extend diagonally transversely of the slit at the inside of the outer panel and are stitched to side edges of the outer panel.

[151 3,683,935 1 Aug. 15, 1972 United States Patent Rosner G'IRDLE TYPE GARMENTS [72] Inventor:

Leonard A. Rosner, c/o Glamon'se Foundations Inc. 135 Madison Ave., New York, 100 Primary Examiner-Jordan Franklin Assistant Examiner-G. V. Larkin [22] Filed. Feb. 18, 1970 Atmmey Jerry Cesak [21] Appl. No.: 12,412

[57] ABSTRACT rear and side garment sections are stitched together in body encircling relationship and one of the sections, such as the front section or one of the side I n O r F 7 300 M? l5 8c 1 21 4 JMPDS m a 87 nn us mmms num mmmg n n I 00 m m "Th c n M f W d 3mm UIF Hum 555 sections, is openable. The openable section includes a non-elastic outer panel having a vertical slit with a slide fastener at edges of the slit, and a pair of mu- [56] References Cited tually crossed elastic inner panels which extend diagonally transversely of the slit at the inside of the outer panel and are stitched to side edges of the outer panel.

6 Clams, 7 Drawing Figures Patented Aug. 15, 1972 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR:

LEONARD A. ROSNER Patented Aug. 15, 1972 3,683,935

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IIIIIIII/ III/11,111,111 I I INVENTOR:

LEONARD A. ROSNER GIRDLE TYPE GARMENTS This invention relates to new and useful improvements in girdle-type garments such as girdles, panty girdles, coiselets, and the like, and the principal object of the invention is to provide a body encircling garment with an openable section, either at the front or at one side, to facilitate convenient donning and removal of the garment while at the same time affording effective reinforcement of the openable section for proper figure control when it is closed.

As is well known, girdle-type garments embody elastic sections which, in order to serve their intended purpose in constricting, supporting and shaping the body, must present a substantial resistance to circumferential yield. If such garments are circumferentially continuous, it is difficult to stretch them sufficiently to be donned or removed without considerable effort, this being particularly true in high-waisted girdles which have a substantial vertical dimension. Thus, it has become common to provide such girdles and also corselets with a slit, openable front, side or back, and with a slide fastener at the edges of the slit for closing the same. However, the slit section of conventional garments, while making donning and removal easier, has suffered an inherent weakness because of the slit and, even at best, considerable difficulty was experienced in attempting to draw the slit edges together by the slide fastener against the formidable tendency of the slit edges to be spread apart by the circumferential tensioning of the garment on the body. To counteract this disadvantage it was also customary in the art to provide the slit section with hook-and-eye fasteners in addition to the slide fastener, so that the spread-apart slit edges could be hand drawn together and hooked, thus reducing the strain on the slide fastener when the latter was subsequently closed. Here again, while the additional hook-and-eye fasteners served their intended function,

they still did nothing to reinforce the slit garment section as a whole, particularly against stresses encountered in drawing the slit edges together so that the fasteners could be hooked. Moreover, the provision of the additional fasteners involved added material and labor costs-in manufacture of the garment.

The present invention eliminates the various aforementioned disadvantages of conventional garment construction by providing the slit, slide fastener-equipped garment section at the inside thereof with a pair of mutually crossed, elastic inner panels which extend diagonally transversely of the slit and are stitched to the garment section in such manner as to provide an elastically yieldable reinforcing bridge across the slit. As a result, when the slide fastener is open, the elastic inner panels facilitate spreading of the slit for easy donning or removal of the garment, but at the same time such spreading is controlled by the tendency of the elastic inner panels to draw the slit edges together and this in turn enables the slide fastener to be closed without undue strain when the garment is in position on the body. The use of hook-and-eye fasteners is thus eliminated, and one of the most important features of the invention is the particular diagonally crossed arrangement of the elastic inner panels, which results in their remarkably good ability to effectively reinforce the slit garment section, not only against stresses encountered during donning and removal, but also in the interests of effectively constrict, support and shape the body when the garment is worn.

With the foregoing more important object and features in view and such other objects and features which may become apparent as this specification proceeds, the invention will be understood from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like characters of reference are used to designate like parts, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a girdle in accordance with the invention on a wearers body with the openable front section of the girdle open;

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of the girdle in the fiat or relaxed form and the front section closed;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view show ing the inside of the front section of the girdle;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged horizontal sectional view, taken substantially in the plane of the line 4-4 in FIG. 3, the spacing of the various superposed material layers being exaggerated for purposes of illustration;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary sectional view, similar to FIG. 3 but showing a modified embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary sectional view, similar to FIGS. 3 and 5 but showing another modified embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a side elevational view of another modification in situ on the body, wherein the openable section is provided at one side of the garment.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings in detail, and more particularly to FIGS. 1-4, the general reference numeral 10 designates a girdle-type garment, specifically a high-waisted panty girdle, consisting of a front section 12, a rear section 13 and a pair of side sections 14, these various sections having contiguous side edges which are joined together at the front and rear by lines of stitching 15, 16, respectively, to assume a body encircling relationship. Some or all of these sections may be made of elastic material which is stretchable at least in the circumferential direction, so as to provide the garment with the desired constricting, supporting and body shaping characteristics, as is well known in the art.

The front garment section 12 is made openable to facilitate donning and removal of the garment, this being doneby providing that section with a vertical slit and a slide fastener 17 at the edges of the slit, as will be clearly apparent. If the section 12 is made of elastic material, as it usually is, an outer panel 18 of nonelastic material is superposed centrally on the elastic and is secured thereto by the stitching 19 and also by stitching 19' which secures the slide fastener 17 to the slit edges of the section 12 (see FIG. 4). Both the section 12 and the superposed panel 18 are slit to accommodate the slide fastener 17 which extends up to and is openable downwardly from the upper edge of the garment. If the front section 12 is made of non-elastic material, which is rather unlikely, then the additional panel 18 need not be provided.

In accordance with the invention a pair of mutually crossed, elastic inner panels 20, 20' are provided at the inside of the front section 12 and panel 18. These inner panels extend diagonally transversely of the slit equipped with the slide fastener 17 and are elastically stretchable in the diagonally transverse directions. As a practical matter, the inner panels 20, 20' may consist of wide elastic straps, stretchable in the direction of their length, the diagonal crossing arrangement of the two panels or straps being clearly shown in FIG. 3.

If the non-elastic outer panel 18 is present, it is usually of a lesser width than the width of the front section 12, but the inner elastic panels 20, 20' may be sufficiently long so that each inner panel extends from one side edge of the panel 18, across and beyond the panel 18 to the opposite side edge of the section 12, and each inner panel is stitched to the section 12 at both ends as well as intermediate its ends. Thus, for example in FIGS. 3 and 4, one end of the panel 20 is stitched as at 19a to the section 12 by the stitching 19 which secures one side of the panel 18 to the section 12; the intermediate portion of the panel 20 is stitched as at 19b to the section 12 by the stitching 19 which secures the other side of the panel 18 to the section 12; and the other end of the panel 20 is stitched as at 190 to the section 12 by the stitching 15 which secures the remote side os the section 12 to the adjacent side section 15. The stitching arrangement of the panel is the same as that of the panel 20, but is of opposite hand.

When the garment is to be donned, the slide fastener 17 is opened to permit separation of the slit edges of the section 12 and panel 18 sufficiently to facilitate easy placement of the garment on the body. During this procedure the inner elastic panels 20, 20 are somewhat stretched, but exercise control in that they tend to draw the slit edges together so that when the garment is in place, the slide fastener 17 may be easily closed without being subjected to excessive stresses incident to circumferential tensioning of the garment on the body. Such stresses are counteracted by the tendency of the elastic panels 20, 20' to draw the slit edges of the section 12 and panel 18 together. It is also significant to note that when the garment is on the body and the slide fastener 17 is closed, the criss-crossed elastic panels 20, 20 afford an effective reinforcement across the panel 18 and across the full width of the front section 12, thus materially enhancing the body constricting, supporting and shaping characteristics of the garment. In this regard the criss-crossed relationship of the elastic panels is important, not only in that it affords a double thickness of elastic material at a strategic location, but it also provides for a diagonal placement of the panels which places their resilient bias in diagonally crossing directions.

FIG. 5 shows a modified embodiment of the invention in which the inner elastic panels 120, 120 terminate at and are secured to the front section 12 by the stitching 19 which secures the outer panel 18 to the section 12, this being distinguished from the arrangement of FIGS. 1-4 wherein the inner elastic panels 20,

20' extend beyond the panel 18 across the full width of the section 12 to the side sections 14. Thus, in the embodiment of FIG. 15 the function of the elastic inner panels 120, 120 is concentrated within the area of the section 12 which is covered by the outer panel 18 and is slit to accommodate the slide fastener 17. This functional concentration is further enhanced by enlarging the size of the panels so that their mutually overlapped area is greater in relation to the area of the panel 18 and, conveniently, the panels 120, 120' may have a substantially triangular form, with a considerable taper from one side to the other, substantially as shown in FIG. 5. FIG: 6 shows another modified embodiment which is similar to that in FIG. 5 but utilizes overlapped inner elastic panels 220, 220 which cover an even greater area of the front section 12 within the confines of the stitching 19 which secures the outer panel 18 to the front section. The panels 220, 220' have a vertical dimension corresponding to that of the outer panel and thus they extend to the upper edge of the garment section 12 where the upper ends of the panels are stitched as at 21. Each panel is tapered from one side to the other and is secured along both sides and along its lower edge to the section 12 by the stitching 19, the diagonal crossing of the two panels being clearly apparent from the drawing.

It may be noted that in the embodiments of FIGS. 5 and 6 the inner panels 120, and 220, 220', respectively, are stretchable in their diagonally crossing directions, as in the embodiment of FIGS. 1-4.

In the embodiments thus far described the openable section of the garment is at the front, but obviously the same could be provided at the back, if so preferred. Moreover, FIG. 7 illustrates an arrangement wherein the openable section is provided at one side of the garment, and if the side section 14 is of non-elastic material, the inner elastic panels 20, 20 may be simply positioned in diagonally crossing relation at the inside of the section 14 and have their ends secured at the seams 15 and 16. On the other hand, if the side section 14 is elastic, a non-elastic outer panel such as the panel 18 may be stitched to the outside of the section and the panels 20, 20' provided at the inside, as already explained in connection with FIGS. 1-4. In such an arrangement the inner panels may either extend beyond the stitching of the outer panel to terminate at the seams 15, 16, or they may terminate at the stitching of the outer panel, as desired. Moreover, the inner panels may have the form of straps such as the panels 20, 20', or they may be more extensive such as the panels 120, 120' and 220, 220' in the embodiment of FIGS. 5 and 6, respectively. While in the foregoing the invention has been shown and described as being embodied in a girdle, it may also be embodied in a corselet wherein the slide fastener 'at the front, side or back extends to the upper edge of the brassiere portion of the garment from below the waist of the girdle portion. In the corselet embodiment the non-elastic outer panel and crossed elastic inner panels would be provided primarily in the abdominal region as in the girdle already described.

What is claimed as new is:

1. A girdletype garment comprising a plurality of interconnected body encircling sections including an elastic section yieldable in a circumferential direction, an outer panel of non-elastic material superposed on the outer surface of said elastic section, lines of stitching securing said outer panel to the elastic section, said outer panel and said elastic section being provided with a vertical slit open at its upper end, a slide fastener secured to the slit edges of the outer panel and elastic section, and a pair of elastically stretchable inner panels disposed at the inside of the garment beneath said elastic section, said inner panels extending transversely of said slit in mutually crossing relation and being secured to the elastic section and to said outer panel by said lines of stitching.

2. The garment as defined in claim 1 which is further characterized in that said inner panels are stretchable diagonally transversely of said slit.

3. A girdle-type garment comprising a plurality of interconnected body encircling sections including an elastic section yieldable in a circumferential direction, an outer panel of non-elastic material superposed on the outer surface of said elastic section, first lines of stitching securing said outer panel to the elastic section, said outer panel and said elastic section being provided with a vertical slit open at its upper end, a slide fastener secured to the slit edges of the outer panel and elastic section, a pair of non-elastic sections disposed at the opposite side edges of said elastic section, second lines of stitching securing said non-elastic sections to the opposite side edges of the elastic section, and a pair of elastically stretchable inner panels disposed at the inside of the garment beneath said elastic section, said inner panels extending transversely of said slit in mutually crossing relation and being secured to the nonelastic and elastic sections by said second lines of stitching.

4. The garment as defined in claim 3 which is further characterized in that said inner panels are stretchable diagonally transversely of said slit.

5. A girdle-type garment comprising a plurality of interconnected body encircling sections including a nonelastic section provided with a vertical slit open at its upper end, a slide fastener secured to the slit edges of said non-elastic, section, a pair of elastic sections disposed at the opposite side edges of said non-elastic section, lines of stitching securing said elastic sections to the opposite side edges of the non-elastic section, and a pair of elastically stretchable inner panels disposed at the inside of the garment beneath said nonelastic section, said inner panels extending transversely of said slit in mutually crossing relation. and being secured to the non-elastic and elastic sections by said lines of stitching.

6. The garment as defined in claim 5 which is further characterized in that said inner panels are stretchable diagonally transversely of said slit. 

1. A girdle-type garment comprising a plurality of interconnected body encircling sections including an elastic section yieldable in a circumferential direction, an outer panel of non-elastic material superposed on the outer surface of said elastic section, lines of stitching securing said outer panel to the elastic section, said outer panel and said elastic section being provided with a vertical slit open at its upper end, a slide fastener secured to the slit edges of the outer panel and elastic section, and a pair of elastically stretchable inner panels disposed at the inside of the garment beneath said elastic section, said inner panels extending transversely of said slit in mutually crossing relation and being secured to the elastic section and to said outer panel by said lines of stitching.
 2. The garment as defined in claim 1 which is further characterized in that said inner panels are stretchable diagonally transversely of said slit.
 3. A girdle-type garment comprising a plurality of interconnected body encircling sections including an elastic section yieldable in a circumferential direction, an outer panel of non-elastic material superposed on the outer surface of said elastic section, first lines of stitching securing said outer panel to the elastic section, said outer panel and said elastic section being provided with a vertical slit open at its upper end, a slide fastener secured to the slit edges of the outer panel and elastic section, a pair of non-elastic sections disposed at the opposite side edges of said elastic section, second lines of stitching securing said non-elastic sections to the opposite side edges of the elastic section, and a pair of elastically stretchable inner panels disposed at the inside of the garment beneath said elastic section, said inner panels extending transversely of said slit in mutually crossing relation and being secured to the non-elastic and elastic sections by said second lines of stitching.
 4. The garment as defined in claim 3 which is further characterized in that said inner panels are stretchable diagonally transversely of said slit.
 5. A girdle-type garment comprising a plurality of interconnected body encircling sections including a non-elastic section provided with a vertical slit open at its upper end, a slide fastener secured to the slit edges of said non-elastic section, a pair of elastic sections disposed at the opposite side edges of said non-elastic section, lines of stitching securing said elastic sections to the opposite side edges of the non-elastic section, and a pair of elastically stretchable inner panels disposed at the inside of the garment beneath said non-elastic section, said inner panels extending transversely of said slit in mutually crossing relation and being secured to the non-elastic and elastic sections by said lines of stitching.
 6. The garment as defined in claim 5 which is further characterized in that said inner panels are stretchable diagonally transversely of said slit. 